Maren & Mason

Maren and Mason are just about 6 weeks apart in age. We had such a blast seeing them interact at the beach this summer. Earlier in the summer we babysat one afternoon and I had so much fun with the two of them! I have always said 18-24 months is my favorite time with my little ones and it continued to be true with these two! Here are some shots of them reading a book with me...

"Where's your teeth?"

"Where are your toes?"

" Where are your fingers?"

So Cute!

Adorable!!

Mason is one of the sweetest babies! He loves Michael and of course if he was cuddled next to Michael so was Mae!

Kindergarten Orientation

I am still playing catch up...Will had his Kindergarten Orientation at St. Joes at the end of May. We got to meet the 2 teachers and some of his future classmates. We celebrated this fun day with dinner at Elevation. Elevation is a restaurant on the grounds of the executive airport by the house. There are floor to window ceilings so you can see all the planes land and take off.

Proud Kindergartener
You can imagine it was quite difficult to get Will to focus on eating.

"Mom, I'm cold!"

Pre-K Graduation

This May William graduated from Primrose! I know I am behind on writing this, but tomorrow (July 31st) is Will's last day at Primrose. It has been such a wonderful journey with William and his Primrose experience. I could not be happier with all his has learned all the wonderful staff and teachers who have loved him!

When we moved here it was such a tumultuous time and finding Primrose was a life saver! I can never say thank you enough to Lisa, Anne, Michele, Keisha, Judy, Diane, Mrs. Parris, Mrs. Thomas, Mrs. Archer-Johnson, Susan, Joan, Melanie and all the others through the past 3.5 years.

Will & Daddy
I swear he looked like a priest in his robe and his hands clasped as he walked down the aisle!

Will's in the front row, second from the center

I was quite impressed he sat so still!

There's a story about this next picture-"I love you!"

They performed several songs at graduation, but Will's favorite was Skid-a-ma rinky-dinky-dink. A few times in the song they say, "I love you." When I asked him why it was his favorite he said, "Because when we practice it Mrs Thomas always points to me because she loves me." On the way to graduation I asked him who he was going to point to when he sang the I Love You part. He told me he was going to point to Mrs. Thomas. I was teasing him and asking him-- what about me? He said that I should just wait and see!!
The first 2 times he said I Love You he pointed to Mrs. Thomas. On the last verse he made eye contact with me and I gave him a big smile. He gave me the most "William" face--- eye brows raised, smirk and a nod. On the last I Love You this is what I got---I'll settle for sharing it with Mrs. Thomas!

Mrs. Thomas giving Will his diploma

Will making sure his diploma is still there under his chair.
Maren's happy face!

Maren's fussy face.

We sat on the back row and the cupcakes were right behind us. She was so good through the whole ceremony and then she started to whine over and over--- I want cake!

So happy!

Jordan and Will

My sweet baby!

Will & Mrs. Thomas

Family shot-- not bad for 2 squimy worms!

Will & Mason

Will & Aunt Mel-- thanks Mel for coming and taking pics and sharing this event with us!

Some of my favorite moments!!

Wonderful ending to an exciting new beginning....here we come St. Joes!

Feeding the Geese

We have a great park area and "lake" in our neighborhood. We like to head out there when the weather's nice. The kids enjoy feeding the geese-- at a distance. They can be quite aggressive(the geese). Here's just a few shots of the kids.

We keep them up high so the bread doesn't get snatched out of their hands.

It looks like they're holding hands, but assumption is that Will is actually yanking her arm to keep her from walking towards the water. It would be sweet except when you see the picture below you can see he was only temporarily concerned with her wellbeing!

Oh, Daddy's girl!

We have a small executive airport near the house and the kids love to see the planes. (Kind of like we're still in Kenner-- ha ha, not even close.)

After the geese we headed to the park. I love when Will goes down the slide because it makes his hair stand up!

Wheeeeee!

Backyard Fun!

I took these pics on a warm May afternoon. We bought a bunch of water guns for our beach trip and then Will got some for his birthday. We had to test them out!

Notice Will's gigantic gun compared to Michael's 2 small ones.

She couldn't shoot them, but she ran in circles after the boys!

Gottcha Dad!!

Birthday Weekend

We celebrated William's 5th birthday on Mother's Day weekend and we were lucky to have Nana spend it with us!
William got a lego table for his birthday and he was thrilled! He loves to build things! We put the table in his room so he can have a place he can play without anyone (Maren) destroying what he builds.

Will and Daddy putting together the hundreds of lego people that came with the set!
Nana helped keep Mae busy so Will could build.

My silly girl!

Mrs. Mary was very excited to come visit for Will's birthday. We were especially excited to prepare for his party. She's been working on her sugar cookies for a while now and we decided to do them for Will's party. We also decided to go cookie lollipops too. It turned into quite a project!

The finished result! I think we had over 100 cookies and lollipops!

Each cookie had to be outlined before it was flooded with icing.

Every counter and table were covered with sheet pans!

Will got into the action too-- his were some of the best decorated!

We had Will's birthday party at the clubhouse in our neighborhood. We thought it would be fun to take advantage of the playground outside. We brought our jumpy and had a face painter. I held my breath until the last minute that the weather would work out. It turned out to be a beautiful day!

As usual that cake is a big part of all of our parties! The number 5 was everywhere!!Cookies and pretzels!

Here are some pics of the festivities!!

Gracie & Hannah

Brian & Mason

Maren & Nana

Mel & Emily

Mike & Jack--you can take the boy out of New Orleans but you can't take the New Orleans out of the boy!

Todd & Matthew

CAKE TIME!

Will's Paparazzi

Will, Mason & Emily

Happy Birthday Will!

Look at those eyes!!

The kids all seemed to love the face painters!

Hannah

Gracie

Ezra

Hank

Malia

Ashley

Will & some of his school friends

Ezra, Dylan, Julia, Mason & Will

This is Will's best bud at school, Jordan

The gang!

We sent them all outside with their cake!

Mae & Daddy

Me & Mae

This is the best shot I could get of them together!

Will & Jordan
Our birthday boy!!

This was the finished product of our cookie lollipops.

We were so happy to be able to celebrate Mother's Day with Mrs. Mary! We had brunch together before heading the airport. Our visits are short but very sweet!!

Michael and Mom

Me & Will

Mae & Nana cutting up

Getting a pic of the 3 of us together is nearly impossible!

Me & my girl!

Will & Nana

Mae & Nana

We kept Will busy after Nana left with an art project.

He worked very hard on his fish...it came out great!

What a great birthday weekend!!